Is it a "bad" ending?

(This post contains spoilers about one of the many endings for I Was a Teenage Exocolonist--please proceed with caution if you're trying to avoid spoilers!)

I decided it was time to revisit one of my previous gaming adventures, namely the part-deckbuilder/part-RPG-ish I Was a Teenage Exocolonist.  One of the great parts of this game is the fact that it offers up numerous outcomes based on the choices you make (I think it's something like over 20)--the entire premise of the game/story is that it's meant to be replayed.  The first time I felt like I had so many negative events happen--Tammy died, both my parents died, and the colony failed.  Total bummer!

This time around I decided I would go with a different skillset (namely the "social" path) and make some different choices.  All of this was in the hope that I could avoid an ending that felt absolutely catastrophic.  One of the things that I discovered in my second playthrough was that your character has flashbacks of their previous lives--this allows you to make some decisions that help to avoid certain character deaths.  For example, this time around I managed to save Tammy and the goofy teacher character, Hal, thanks to memories from my first playthrough.  One word of advice though...when given the option to reveal that your character is having flashbacks, don't do it!  Basically everyone thinks you're nuts and you earn a -1 "delusions" card.

I didn't find anything too special about choosing social skills.  I had hoped that if I had higher persuasion skills that I could talk more characters into beneficial actions, but it turns out that persuasion is one of the harder skills to level up.  The main benefit I found was from bravery and the ability to engage in more fighting (this, despite the fact that I had basically no combat skills) when the xenos attacked.  In all reality though, choosing to fight does give you a buff to physical skills for 3 months, but usually results in getting injured more than anything, so it's a mixed bag.  I supposed that my high social skills did help me at certain points--namely in dissuading Dys from setting a bomb during one of the attacks.  I also didn't manage to land a real "profession" for my character.

There were a few positive outcomes during this playthrough--I managed to save both my parents!  I helped Tangent find a cure for the Shimmer and also discovered enough food sources to avoid the famine that results in the loss of your mom.  I hoped this would result in more interactions with the parent characters, but it actually results in a wholly different outcome that I didn't anticipate.

Curing the Shimmer unlocks a deadly path forward.

In curing the Shimmer you potentially set Tangent and her science mentor, Instance, on a devastating path for Vertumna. As my teenage years were coming to an end I was treated to a surprising cutscene...my character woke up to find that their hopeye pet had died.  It was a sad moment, but I figured it was a natural thing.  Then the cutscene proceeded and the entire camp was gathered for a major announcement.  While heading to the announcement you notice some drones spraying a substance through the air around the camp...something strange is afoot.  It's at the meeting that it's revealed that in curing the Shimmer, Tangent and Instance were able to synthesize a biological/chemical agent that will kill all native flora and fauna on Vertumna.  That's what killed your pet hopeye!  This means that all plants, animals, and even the alien Gardeners will be completely wiped out.  The plan is then to seed native Earth species onto the planet--essentially making it into a blank slate to completely restart from scratch.  Cal, your sensitive animal-loving friend, reacts negatively and tries to take out the camp dictator, Lum, and is shot and killed by the guards.

In the end, the colony survives, but at the cost of everything that made Vertumna unique.  Humanity prevails.  Is it a bad ending?  I mean, I did manage to save the colony.  Yeah, this is a bad ending.  I didn't like the feeling of completely wiping out the native life on the planet.  Ugh, I just really want to get an ending that doesn't feel so crappy!  But, I think that's the point, to get you to keep replaying to shoot for a better ending.

There are still a few things I find frustrating about I Was a Teenage Exocolonist--namely the fact that I wish there was a better way to prompt players about how to proceed when they're solving certain events.  For example, when you discover the components for the Shimmer cure you must go to hydroponics first or else the correct events won't trigger (same goes for the food crisis).  I also find that it's difficult to know how much exploration to do versus staying in camp and building skills.  If you don't explore enough I feel like you're missing a fair chunk of stuff and exploration also offers good opportunities to build certain skills.

It's my ultimate goal to unlock a good ending, so future replays await.  For now, I'm happy to sulk about the depressing ending.